Vending machine



F. s, MASON VENDING MACHINE Sept. 22, 1953 Filed June 2'?, 1950 2 sheets-Sheet 2 1LT TOPNEY Patented Sept. 22, 1953 UNITED STATES PATENT 'OFFCE VENDING MACHINE Ford S. Mason, Lockport, N. Y.

Application'J une 27 1950,.-SerialNo. 170,549

(Cl. 'S12-"89) 3 "Claims 1 This invention relates to improvements .in vending machines `of the :general type disclosed in my pending application Ser. No. 742,266., filed April 18, 1947.

The objects of this invention are to generally improve machines of this type for the purpose of enabling these machines to operate more satisfactorily, to protect the articles which are .being sold against damage, to protect the machines against tampering and to protect users .of the machine against loss vof money by improperly using the machines. .More specifically, one vof the `objects is to provide a machine of this type with an improved construction for making it impossible to insert coins .into the usual slot in the outer casing Aof the machine in which the actuating lever or handle moves. .Another object is to -provide stops of improved `construction on the pan of the machine for stopping the movement of the coin carrier at opposite Aends ofits path Vof movement when operating the machine. .Afurther object is to provide an improved article carrier in which damage to the articles reduced toa minimum. It is also an object of this invention to ,provide the coin carrier with inclined edge portions for the purpose of lifting the articles without damage thereto when the machine is being actuated.

Other objects .and advantages will be apparent from the following description of one embodiment of the invention and the novel features will be particularly lpointed out hereinafter in co-n nectio'n with theappended claims.

'In the accompanying drawings;

Fig. 1 is a sectional elevation of a Vending machine `embodying this invention, the section being taken approximately on line l-l, Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 is =a sectional plan view thereof, 'on .line 2 2, Fig. 1. f

.Fig. 3 is a 'fragmentary sectional elevation thereof showing the cooperating parts of the article carrier, the coin rcarrier and the pan for handling the articles without damage thereto.

Fig. 4 .is a fragmentary sectional elevation thereof approximately online 4-4,.Fig. 2.

Fig. A5 .is a fragmentary sectional elevation thereof on line 5-'5,'Fig. 2.

Fig. `6 is a similar view `showing the parts Vin different positions.

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary elevation of the vending machine.

Fig. V8 is a fragmentary sectional View thereof, online `8--'8, Fig. 2. y

Fig. '9 is a perspective View of a portionof the machine showing the coin receiving part .of the coincarrier.

iiD

The Wmachine shown in the .drawings Yand to which the improvements embodying this invention have been .applied .includes a base or housing having an annular side wall .It anda .bottom wall I.I .secured thereto. The lower portion of this .base .or .housing forms Aa container for coins, into which Athe coins .are dropped after they have effected the .release Vof articles for Vdischarge from the machine. 'I'his portion .of the housing also has .an inclined article discharge chute or trough i2 suitably secured to the annular side wall l0 yand extending through a vhole in the .same to the exterior of the machine. The outer -end of .the trough is formed with an upwardly .inclined .part I5 which receives the articles discharged through the .trough and holds them .imposition `to .be .removed by `the purchaser. I5a represents .a .trap door which is hinged in the discharge chute an-d which normally closes the chute against :entry .of insects or insertion of implements for .the .purpose of tampering with the machine. nThe trap door .is swung .about its hinge or pivotby articles moving down the chute. i

AThe upper ,portion of .the .side wall l0 supports a .pan .|11 'having an .upwardly .extending annular wall .IB which telescopes within the annular wall I'. The upper edge of .this annular wall of the pan is provided with an .outwardly extending flange 'formed to rest on .the t'op edge of the annular side wall l0. This pan supports the coin controlled .mechanism and the mechanism for discharging articles through the trough l2. .'For this ,purpose the vpan Tis .provided with a central upright post T9 suitably secured thereto.

Within the pan and oscillatable on the bottom thereof .is a coin carrier '2t which is of sector-shape ,and which has a substantially flat bottom portion resting on the bottom of said pan, and an upright arc-shaped flange '2i acl-- jacent to 'the upright wall i8 of the pan. The coin carrier 'is mounted vto oscillate about the axis of the post TQ to a limited extent Iand the vlimits of movement of the .coin carrier are dened by upwardly extending lugs or stop projections 23 and 2li., Fig, '2, preferably .made 7by pressing a portion of the metal of the bottom 'of 'the pan upwardly. The coin 'carrier also has a handle 25 preferably 'formed integra-1 therewith 'and extending to the exterior of the housing through registering `slots 'in the upright walls i8 of the pan and 'the `wall flii of the housing. 'The coin carrier is resiliently urged into coin receiving position .in which one Yedge thereof -engages the stop23 and the :coin carrier isfalsonormally held in engagement 'with the stop 1:23 :by `any 'suitable 3 yielding means, such for example as a spring of the type shown in said pending application and which is indicated at 22 in Fig. 'l

The coin carrier may be provided with ani7 means ior receiving a coin and holding the same in upright position. In the particular construction shown, the coin carrier has an arc-shaped portion thereof partly cut out of the flat portion of the coin carrier and bent upwardly to form an arcuate upwardly extending ledge or projection which includes an upwardly extending web 2, see particularly Figs. 2, 5, 6 and 9, and a horizontally extending flange 28. A part of the flange 2t is provided with a slot S and a portion of the ange 23 beyond the coin slot is bent down-v wardly as shown at 3 l. This downwardly extending part 3l is substantially parallel to the ange 21 and forms therewith a space in which a coin will be held in upright position as shown in Figs. and 6. When in this position, the coin rests on the upper face of the pan l1 and will be held in substantially upright position as shown in Figs. 5 and 6 during the movement of the coin carrier about the axis of the post I9. When the coin carrier is moved by means of the handle 25 into engagement with the stop 24, the coin will drop through a slot or opening in the pan into the receptacle formed by the base and side wall i!) of the housing.

Above the coin carrier and within the pan is arranged an article carrier which has a central aperture through which the post i8 extends so that the article carrier may move about the axis of the post. rhe article carrier is preferably formed from a sheet of metal and .is provided with a plurality of integral downwardly extending tubular projections or article pockets Sii, see particularly Fig; 3, which are formed integral and drawn out of the article carrier 35.

While the machine described may be used for handling articles of various types and shapes, the vending machine shown in the accompanying drawings is primarily intended for the vending of balls of chewing gum which are coated on their exterior surfaces with sugar or other breakable coating. A relatively large quantity of these gum balls are placed into a receptacle 38 in the upper portion of the machine and these gum balls are dropped by gravity into the pockets or tubular extensions 35 of the article carrier. Because of the weight or the mass of gum balls in the machine and because of the more or less fragile nature of the coating about the gum balls, it is necessary to make provisions in the machine to avoid chipping or breaking of the coating on the gum balls, not only for the reason that the purchasers object to receiving chipped or damaged gum balls, but also because the portions of coating chipped from the gum balls may accumulate on various parts of the machine, and thus interfere with the correct operation of the same. One of the improvements o the present machine to avoid damage to the articles is that the downwardly extending tubular portions 36 of the article carrier are formed by a dieepressing or drawing operation integral with the article carrier 35. By means of this construction, the inner surfaces of the tubular projection 36 are smooth so that they will not damage the coating of the gum balls, and furthermore, these tubular projections at their juncture with the horizontal part of the article carrier are formed into arcs 31 over which the gum balls may roll with the minimum possibility of damage thereto. By means of this construction, the upper surface of the article car- 4 rier has no upwardly extending projections which may damage the articles.

For further reducing the possibility of damaging the articles to a minimum, the stop 23 is sol constructed that as articles in the pockets 36 of the article carrier pass over this stop, they will be gradually raised, even though the handle 25 is moved rapidly by the customer. This is accomplished by providing one side or the stop projection, opposite to that which engages the coin carrier, with an inclined surface 39 which has a very gradual rise. For example, this inclined surface is preferably arranged at an angle of not more than 15 degrees from the nat face of the pan. The inclined surface 39 of this stop, consequently, also acts as a ramp to facilitate the transfer of articles over this stop. The other stop 24 is formedV in the same manner since these stops are more readily formed in the metal than stops having abrupt shoulders on both sides thereof.

As the coin carrier 2!) is oscillated between the position shown in full lines in Fig. 2 and a position in which the coin carrier engages the stop 24, some of the articles held in the pockets 35 will be moved from a position in which they rest on the pan ii to a position in which they rest upon the coin carrier. It is, consequently, necessary at each oscillation of the coin carrier to move one or more articles upwardly from the pan up onto the coin carrier. In order to prevent damage to articles, such for example, as gum balls during the oscillation of the coin carrier, I have provided the coin carrier at its opposite radial edges with gradually inclined portions 4l) and 4|, see Figs. 2 and 3. These inclined portions taper to a relatively thin edge atrthe portions thereof which engage the articles 13. Consequently, the relatively sharp edges of the portions 4i@ and 4l will slide underneath the articles without damage to them and the gradual slope of the inclined Dortion iii will tend to lift the articles almost vertically so that no damage to the same results.

As shown in Fig. 2, these tapering or inclined portions extend over only a small portion of the length or" the radial edge portions of the coin carrier, thus leaving the major portions of these edge portions substantially perpendicular to their upper and lower surfaces to abut against the stops 23 and 2d. Consequently, by means of this construction, the thin or sharp edges of the article engaging portions Mi and di of the coin carrier will not become bent over or burred by Contact with the stops, which would be very damaging to the article-s.

in order to make certain thatvthe coin carrier will be prevented from riding upwardly on the shoulders of the stops 23 and 24, l have provided the pan with a pair of outwardly bent lugs 45 and it which are so located that the upwardly extending fiange 2i of the coin carrier will ride underneath these lugs just before contacting with the stops. Each of4 these lugs is preferably formed by making a pair of substantially parallel cutsintheupwardly extending wall I3 of the pan and pressing the metal between these cuts inwardly. Theseolugs, consequently, serve to hold the flat portion of thelcoin carrier 2i! down and substantially in contact with the bottorn of the pan and thus prevent these edge portions from'v being lifted upwardly over the stop shoulders 23 and 24. By means of the construction described, the metal of these lugs will be' :subjectedl to shear when it is attempted to pry the coin carrier upwardly so that the lugs 25o-'benne oder a high resistance against `upward prying of the coin carrier. Y

In order to further protect the machine against tampering by inserting an instrument into the slot 50 in the side wall -lilof the housing through which slot the handle member 125 extends, and also to prevent persons unac'customed to the vuse of -this machine from inserting coins` infto this slot, I have provided the following construction. The slot 'El in the upright Vwall yl of `"the pan which is in registration with the 'slot '5'0 of the side wall lil is formed above the bottom ofthe pan. The lower edge of the slot 5l in the pan is so formed as to extend to some extent above the bottom edge of the slot 5!) in the wall I0. This eliminates the possibility of inserting an implement, such as a screw driver through the registering slots and under the pan. The handle 25 which extends out through the registering slots instead of extending straight out from the bottom wall of the coin carrier 2t, is provided with an upwardly extending offset portion 52, and then extends outwardly from this upwardly extending portion. To further protect the machine and the users of the same, the upright wall or flange 2l of the coin carrier is made sufciently high to overlap both registering slots 50 and 55, as clearly shown in Fig. 8. By having the slot 5@ in the outer housing member I0 partly covered by an upwardly extending portion of the flange of the pan, and by providing the handle portion with an upwardly odset handle part 52, and by having the upwardly extending flange 2| of the coin carrier extending across the registering slots 5@ and 5|, it is impossible for any one to insert a coin or implement through the slot 5i of the pan and into the space between the bottom of the pan and the coin carrier. By means of the construction described, the bottom of the pan is below the lower edge of the slot 5t in the wall and the bottom of the coin carrier is below the lower edge of the slot 5I in the flange of the pan, thus rendering it impossible to insert an implement between the pan and coin carrier, and the flange of the coin carrier and offset portion of the handle extending across the registering slots, prevent the insertion of an implement through the slots above the coin carrier.

The article carrier 35 andthe spring member 54 may be similar to those shown in said copending application No. 742,266, and the carrier 35 is pro-vided at the periphery thereof with a downwardly extending flange 55 having a series of outwardly extending tongues 56 formed integral therewith. One of these tongues is provided for each article pocket. These tongues are so arranged that when a coin is held in the coin slot of the coin carrier and the coin carrier is advanced from coin receiving position in engagement with the stop 23 into its advanced position in engagement with the stop 2li, the coin held by the coin carrier will engage a tongue 5S and advance the article carrier with the coin carrier. The spring member is provided with an arm 58 having a downwardly extending locking pin 59 thereon which engages and is yieldingly pressed by the arm 58 into any one of the apertures 60 in the article carrier. This arm 58 is also provided with an extension 5I in the path of movement of a coin t2 when the same is advanced by means of the coin carrier. During the initial movement orf the coin carrier, the coin 62 engages the extension 6l and lifts the spring arm 58 to move the locking pin 59 out of the hole 60, thus permitting the article carrier to be moved when the vcoin ymoves '-intoleng-agement with yone of the 4'outwardly extending tongues 55. When the coin carrier has been moved into engagement 'with the 'stop Y2li, `the coin i-s dropped through a `slot vin the pan I1 and at the same time the -pin l59 meves into lthe next aperture i60 of 'the article carrier. As `the coin carrier moves back to its initial position an aperture in @the coin carrier A'moves into 'registration with `'one of the article pockets of the article carrier, thus permitting an article `to drop into the -discharge chu-te l2.

The linside y'cellar 55 of the machine f'or supporting *the glass container 133, the outside collar 66, the locking bar 61 and the lock 53 may be similar 'itothe corresponding parts shown in my said application for patent, and consequently, require no further description here.

It will be understood that various changes in the details, materials, and arrangements of parts which have been herein described and illustrated in order to explain the nature of the invention, may be made by those skilled in the art within the principle and scope off the invention, as expressed in the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. A vending machine having a base forming a receptacle for coins, a pan supported within said base, a coin carrier oscillatable on said pan, and an article carrier arranged above said pan and coin carrier and having a plurality of pockets, in which articles are supported while resting on said pan, a stop extending upwardly from said pan and with which an edge of said coin carrier engages to limit the movement thereof, a portion of said edge in the path of movement of the articles by said article carrier sloping downwardly to form a sharp edge which can pass under an article to raise the same to facilitate passing the article over said stop, the remaining portion of said edge ending in an abruptshoulder to contact said stop, whereby deformation of said sharp edge by contact with said stop is prevented.

2. A vending machine having a base forming a receptacle for coins, a pan supported within said base, a coin carrier oscillatable on said pan, and an article carrier arranged above said pan and coin carrier and having a plurality of pockets, in which articles are supported while resting on said pan, said pockets moving said articles along a iixed path on said pan, a stop extending upwardly from said pan and with which an edge of said coin carrier engages to limit the movement thereof, the major portion of said edge of said coin carrier having a substantially square shoulder movable into engagement with said stop, another portion of said edge being of gradually decreasing thickness and inclining downwardly from the upper surface thereof to form a sharp edge at the lower surface of said coin carrier which moves in said path in close proximity to said pan for readily passing under an article to lift the same upwardly from said` pan to the upper surface of said coin carrier, said square shouldered portion oi said edge serving to prevent said sharp edge from being damaged by contact with said stop.

3. In a vending machine having a base forming a receptacle for coins and including a side Wall, a pan supported by the upper portion of said side wall and including a base and an upwardly extending flange telescoping into the upper portion of said side wall, a coin carrier oscillatable on said pan, and a stop formed integral with said pan by pressing part of the base of said pan 7 upwardly into position to be engaged by said coin carrier at an end of its path of movement, that improvement in which said flange of said pan is provided in proximity to said stop with a pair of slits extending parallel to the base of said pan and in which the metal of said ange between said slits is bent inwardly to form a lug, said slits and said lug being arranged irnmediately above the path of movement of said coin carrier into engagement with said stop. whereby lifting of said coin carrier above said stop is prevented by said lug, and whereby lifting of said coin carrier subjects the material of said lug to shear at the opposite ends of said slits.

FORD S. MASON.

References Cited in the file'of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date Mills Dec. 17, 1901 Mason Sept. 16, 1919 Mason Nov. 11, 1919 Kuhn et a1. Dec. 6, 1927 Barson Jan. 31, 1929 Walker May 12, 1931 Epstein Feb. 19, 1935 Perrin et al Jan. 10, 1950 

